Dirty Energy Lobby Optimistic About Obama’s Second Term

Dirty Energy Lobby Optimistic About Obama’s Second Term

Despite the years that they have spent attacking President Obama, the dirty energy industry is incredibly optimistic that the White House is going to give the oil and gas industry everything they want in Obama's second term.

Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute (API), said that his group is confident that the Obama administration’s second term will turn into a boom for the natural gas industry. As we’ve pointed out in the past, Gerard’s vision for America is to have a dirty energy lobbyist strategically placed in every district in the country.

American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard said at the lobby shop’s annual energy outlook event Tuesday that he was “encouraged” by Obama’s recent comments on the oil-and-gas industry.

“I think over the past couple of months we’ve increased positive dialogue with the administration,” Gerard said in a news conference after the event.

Gerard attributed that shift to “game-changing” natural-gas development and the Obama administration’s more recent embrace of natural gas. Gerard said he wants to work with the administration to harness the domestic energy boom to help the economy.

Gerard’s optimism is based on statements that Obama made both during and after his campaign, including his statements of support for increased natural gas drilling as well as his goal of making America a net exporter of energy.

However, that study did not take into account the increased environmental and health damage associated with increasing natural gas extraction processes, including the risks of fracking, and it also readily admits that becoming a natural gas exporter means that Americans will pay a higher price for gas.

API is incredibly happy with the prospects before them for Obama’s second term, which is a bad sign for the American people.

The activities of the API are constantly at odds with the best interest of the American public, and if they get their way in Washington then that means that the people will be the losers in this scenario.

Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.

There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.